OUR TOP 10 LISTS

10. Skull and Bones

Rumored that members of this Yale University student organization rule the world. Sadly, these days meetings of this society are nothing more than a bunch of nerdy jocks sitting around talking about their love problems and hanging out roasting marshmallows on a dilapidated island on the St. Lawrence River. Sounds really fun bros.

Tune in as we undress pop culture's most beloved obsessions. Don't miss LOVE LUST | SECRET SOCIETIES and more, Tuesdays at 10p.

Author: Jason Daniel Schwartz

9. Rumors of Illuminati

Rumors of Illuminati string-pullers behind world governments are about as cliche as it comes. But a good list of occult secret societies would be amiss without a mention of the Illuminati, which actually began innocently enough as a secular humanist group of dudes in 18th-century Bavaria.

Despite conspiracy theories that claim members of the Illuminati control everything from Hollywood to global conflict and trade, we want to assure you the group does not in fact exist.

Trust us. There is no such thing as the Illuminati. You have nothing to fear.

Tune in as we undress pop culture's most beloved obsessions. Don't miss LOVE LUST | SECRET SOCIETIES and more, Tuesdays at 10p.

Author: Jason Daniel Schwartz

8. A lot of symbols are commonly associated with secret societies

''666'', the pentagram, the ankh, various types of crosses, hands, and evil serpents. However none gets weirder than that pyramid with the floating top containing an eye.

Referred to as the Eye of Providence for its use in American History, the all-seeing eye, often within a triangle, has roots in Buddhism, Egypt's Cult of Horus, Christianity and Satanism, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, to name just a few.

What does it mean? Whatever you want it to, we guess.

Tune in as we undress pop culture's most beloved obsessions. Don't miss LOVE LUST | SECRET SOCIETIES and more, Tuesdays at 10p.

Author: Jason Daniel Schwartz

7. Theosophy

With thousands of members in dozens of countries, Theosophy can hardly be called a secret society. But it sounds like one.

Cofounded in the 19th Century by a woman who called herself Madame Blavatsky, and dependent on all kinds of mystical and occult practices, the proto-New Age Theosophists share many of the influences of (and influenced) many practices of today's secret societies.

Tune in as we undress pop culture's most beloved obsessions. Don't miss LOVE LUST | SECRET SOCIETIES and more, Tuesdays at 10p.

Author: Jason Daniel Schwartz

6. The DaVinci Code

The DaVinci Code made Opus Dei both more recognizable and, well, more interesting than it actually is. Originally founded in the early 20th century with a an emphasis on work and ordinary life as holy, and having received recent criticism for its recruitment tactics and cult-like atmosphere, the group doesn't sound quite as fascinating as albino assassins and a centuries-old blood vendettas would have you assume.

Tune in as we undress pop culture's most beloved obsessions. Don't miss LOVE LUST | SECRET SOCIETIES and more, Tuesdays at 10p.

Author: Jason Daniel Schwartz

5. Freemasonry

Freemasonry seems like the prototypical secret society, with secret handshakes and rituals, murkily-derived terms and symbols, and all kinds of connections to the US founding fathers.

However as all things must pass, so must expire the exclusivity of the Freemasons, who have of late begun massive recruiting drives across college campuses and on the radio in a campaign to make themselves even minutely relevant.

Tune in as we undress pop culture's most beloved obsessions. Don't miss LOVE LUST | SECRET SOCIETIES and more, Tuesdays at 10p.

Author: Jason Daniel Schwartz

4. The Rosicrucians

The Rosicrucians are an ancient group, tracing their origins to occult and Cabbalistic texts in the 16th and 17th centuries. Originally, these guys were as deeply committed to both uncovering nature's hidden forces (i.e. alchemy and sorcery) and Catholicism-their name refers to the rosey cross in their insignia, a symbol alive today in the symbology of the Freemasons.

The original sect faded away, but it has been reinvented and resucitated into dozens of offshoots.

Some of these still claim serious commitment to alchemy and the occult. Others, claim the opposite, though this denial might just be more sorcery.

Tune in as we undress pop culture's most beloved obsessions. Don't miss LOVE LUST | SECRET SOCIETIES and more, Tuesdays at 10p.

Author: Jason Daniel Schwartz

3. The Freemasons and Rosicrucian

The Freemasons and one of those Rosicrucian offshoots fostered the guys who founded another early 20th Century occult group.

With its inclusion of women on par with men, and devotion to such practices as astral projection, geomancy, and alchemy, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is considered the most important modern influence on contemporary occult groups.

It includes such names as W.B. Yeats and Bram Stoker among its purported adherents.
Tune in as we undress pop culture's most beloved obsessions. Don't miss LOVE LUST | SECRET SOCIETIES and more, Tuesdays at 10p.

Author: Jason Daniel Schwartz

2. Aleister Crowley

As a pan-cultural wizard, apostate of Golden Dawn, founder of the religion Thelema, reformer of OTO, and consorter with magickal figures of the likes of Beelzebub and Aiwass, Aleister Crowley was considered a dangerous man in the early 20th century.

This distinction made him into a rather beloved figure later in the century, particularly to rock musicians and latter day wiccans.

It may be true that Crowley was ahead of his time, but that doesn’t mean his writings are more comprehensible in ours. If you insist on trying, start with The Book of the Law, in which Crowley lays out the cases that traditional morality is garbage and that we are currently living in the dawning of the Age of Horus.

Tune in as we undress pop culture's most beloved obsessions. Don't miss LOVE LUST | SECRET SOCIETIES and more, Tuesdays at 10p.

Author: Jason Daniel Schwartz

1. Why all the devil?

All this temple and skulls and Crowley talk may have caused you to wonder: why all the devil? Why all the serpents and death? Why do secret societies seem to be so committed to the dark side?

Religious types may argue the origins of this come from actual Satanic origins, while occultists might claim that they are searching for the complete workings behind nature.

We admit it's all a little off-putting at first, but we assure you, the more you look into it, the more your anxieties will be replaced by a healthy feeling of utter confusion.

Tune in as we undress pop culture's most beloved obsessions. Don't miss LOVE LUST | SECRET SOCIETIES and more, Tuesdays at 10p.

Author: Jason Daniel Schwartz